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THE FINAL PACES....
Mother's, there's a mad man running in the streets,
And he's humming a tune,
And he's snarling at dogs,
And he still has four more miles to go.
-Nike ad, May 1990
DISTANCE RUN TODAY: 10.74 miles
TOTAL DISTANCE RUN: 59.95 miles
DISTANCE REMAINING: NONE! DONE!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!
WHERE AM I ON "THE VIRTUAL TRAIL"? Today was the day to finish it, and so I started out where I left off, running down Route 76 East, or the Schuykill Expressway. Ran all the way down the Schuykill (in most circumstances, running the Schuykill would actually be faster than driving it) until I reached the exit for 676/US 30/Ben Franklin Bridge. Taking the exit, I turned right onto N. 6th Street, and ran for another 4/10 of a mile, winding up in front of Independence Hall, at 6th and Chestnut Street. After a quick cheer for making it to my destination, the remainder of the mileage took me a couple of blocks further to a local pub to celebrate with a BIG steak and a few beers!!!
COMMENTARY: I'll spend at least a day sitting on the experience as a whole before I "wrap up" on here. Let it be said that I woke up this morning with sore legs, and a stiff back. I DID NOT want to run. I tried to rest a little bit, hoping that a few of the pains would work themselves out before it was time for my run. They didn't.
Finally, around 3:00PM or so, I felt like I couldn't wait any longer. Knowing today wasgoing to be a 10+ miler, it was going to take some time, and I didn't want to risk getting caught in the rain coming up the coast from Charley, so I finally motivated myself to get my butt out the door.
And within a mile or two, I was feeling better. And I'm glad I went. And I'm SO glad I finished running these 59.7 miles. A true sense of accomplishment.
Around Mile 5, the batteries on my headphones went out, leaving me without my music for the remainder of the run. Using the music for as long as I have as a distraction/crutch, it's incredibly difficult to go to a "silent" run. When the music isn't present, there is nothing else to do but to focus on the sound of your breath, and the pace as you quicken. The sound of your feet hitting the pavement. You can quite literally hear the sound of your heartbeat pounding in your neck. You lose the ability to deny to yourself what you are actually doing. Which is both a blessing and a curse, I suppose.
And if you're keeping score at home, my BodyGlide gave out around Mile 7.5 - ouch.
As I said, I'll write one more entry after today to sum up the results of the Challenge and our Fundraising efforts, but for today let me give one last plea/plug:
If you were waiting for the "results" to come in, well... they're in. We have a few hours before the challenge grant period will be over, and we've come no where near matching the maximum potential for that grant.
Your donation and/or pledge will continue to be incredibly appreciated right up until the point where we bring our show down to the Phladelphia Fringe Festival in September, but if there's any possible way for you to make that pledge tonight, it would go toward our final tally in the challenge grant. You can make your donation at:
https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/291
Or you can still make a donation via mail today, simply by e-mailing us at FUNKOPOLISFUSION@AOL.COM and letting us know the amount of your donation, and then mailing it to:
Funkopolis - P.O. Box 3251 - Allentown, PA 18106-0251
This is our last chance at matching this grant. I've done all I can do. You can help us out tremendously by making even a small donation.
Thanks SO MUCH for all of your support and attention to all of this over the past two weeks - we hope to see all of you at the show in September!!!
tim
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